Albertus Adiwenanto Widyasworo (Photo courtesy of Aid to the Church in Need)
Sep 6 2021
Albertus Adiwenanto Widyasworo is a 35-year-old seminarian at the Jakarta Archdiocese-run John Paul II Major Seminary in Central Jakarta. He entered the major seminary in 2015 after working for six years as a doctor at St. Carolus Hospital, also located in Central Jakarta.
When Indonesia was dealing with the highest daily rise of COVID-19 cases last June, due to the more contagious Delta variant, he decided to risk his own health and life and return to his roots as a doctor to serve COVID-19 patients undergoing self-isolation at the archdiocese’s Wisma Samadi Pastoral Center, which had been converted into a self-isolation ward. More than 150 patients have recovered at the facility.
Widyasworo, who graduated in 2009 from the Medical Faculty at the Semarang-based University of Diponegoro, recently spoke with Aid to the Church in Need:
“The situation got worse at that time. Hospitals experienced shortages of beds and medical workers. I heard that the Wisma Samadi Pastoral Center was converted into a self-isolation ward. Father Yustinus Ardianto, who serves as the pastoral center’s director, could not handle it all alone. I was also afraid that no medical workers would be available to treat patients there. That is why I wanted to make sure that they all would be just fine. It was a form of a collegiality.
“All seminarians took part in the initiative. They did what they could. But who would do the health check-up of the COVID-19 patients? Finally, I asked for permission from the rector of the major seminary. A seminarian’s service is actually based on a certain mission, and it was not my mission to help Father Yustinus in treating the COVID-19 patients at Wisma Samadi Pastoral Center. At that time, St. Carolus Hospital lacked doctors as a number of doctors were also undergoing self-isolation, so it would be difficult for the priest to get help from the hospital. I am a seminarian but also a doctor. Thanks be to God, the rector of the major seminary granted me permission.
“The first thing I did was to make sure that each COVID-19 patient had a medical record. Then I taught all persons involved in the service about, for example, how to wear personal protective equipment properly so as to prevent them from being infected with COVID-19.
Read the full news in LiCAS.news.
